NY Times changes CIA headline for WH

The New York Times has changed the subheadline in Wednesday’s front-page story on the CIA’s destruction of secret interrogation tapes, following a formal request by the White House.

The correction has already been made online, and there will be a print correction in the paper, according to a Times representative.

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On Wednesday, White House press secretary Dana Perino said in a statement that the Times subheadline — “White House Role Was Wider Than It Said” — was inaccurate.

“The New York Times’ inference that there is an effort to mislead in this matter is pernicious and troubling, and we are formally requesting that NYT correct the subheadline of this story,” Perino said.

The White House has continued not to comment on what the representative dubbed “misleading press reports.”

In a statement, the Times said, “The White House has not challenged the contents of our story, but it questioned the precision of the second deck of our headline. ... While Bush administration officials have discussed the White House role in the tapes episode (asserting, for example, that Harriet Miers opposed the destruction of the tapes) ‘the White House’ has not officially said anything on the subject. We have made the appropriate correction online, and will print a correction.”

Dean Baquet, the Times' Washington D.C. bureau chief, told Politico that while the deck — the subheadline — went a “little farther than the story,” the facts in the piece are accurate.

“Nobody has challenged the thrust of the story,” Baquet said.

“If they want to quibble with the deck, they have a legitimate point. But nobody is raising any questions with what the story is about, and what the story said.”

Although the story was written and edited in Washington D.C., according to Baquet, the subheadline and layout, in typical fashion, were handled in New York.

Mark Mazzetti and Scott Shane, the Times reporters who co-authored the story, could not be reached for comment.